One day while sitting in my room, surrounded by dozens of books I’ve collected over the years, I fooled around with the Amazon Kindle.

I had borrowed the eReader from my cousin, figuring I could use it as a prop for an English project. Little did I know I would end up cheating on my beloved books by using a newfangled device.

I had told myself I would never give in to the new technology, that I liked the feel of curling up with a good book and turning its pages too much to change. But I’ll be honest, I was intrigued with eReaders and tablets. After all, my generation — appropriately deemed the Internet Generation — loves technology.

I thought I was an old-school reader, walking into bookstores and browsing for hours. But bookselling-giants like Borders started closing and smaller bookstores got more difficult to find. Even libraries started competing against eReaders and tablets, trying to lure young people back to the land of the Dewey Decimal system.

Visitors to San Jose’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library can check out eReaders as well as books. The library also offers programs and facilities of interest to young people and adults.

Such libraries are doing a fairly good job at keeping people interested, but in the next few years, it’s going to become more difficult to attract visitors.

EReaders will be offering more information, more insight, more help in understanding the material. And libraries will have to do more to keep customers.

Even with programs catering to youngsters, I don’t know many people my age who still go to the library for resources. Instead they turn to the Internet.

If libraries were to close, there would be outrage from older generations but I doubt teens would notice after the initial shock wore off. They would be more interested in tech advancements.

For example, textbooks will be accessible on tablets, allowing students to have good posture and no backaches from hauling books around. Furthermore, scholarly journals will be offered as well as animation that accompanies texts.

If it’s the price that turns people away, they should know eReaders and tablets will pay off in the long run. And if you don’t have the money to purchase one, you can experiment with them at libraries or schools.

According to Peter F. Young, a San Jose State University journalism professor, digital reading cuts the cost of books by 50 percent to 60 percent. He also predicts more technological advances will increase the fascination of them.

Even though there will always be people like me who love the feel of books, there will also be people who, like me, have crossed over to the other side.

So go ahead and experiment. Borrow from your library or from a friend. It’s OK to cross over. You might be surprised at what you find.

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